Fidel Castro


Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born August 13, 1926) has been the ruler of
Cuba since he became Premier on February 16, 1959 and President of the Cuban
Republic on December 3, 1976.

Resistance against Batista

Born in Biran, Holguin, Cuba, into a wealthy farming family (son of Angel
Castro and Lina Ruz), he was educated at Jesuit schools and then the Jesuit
preparatory school Colegio Belen in Havana. In 1945 he went to the
University of Havana to study law, graduating in 1950.

Castro practiced law in a small partnership between 1950 and 1952. He
intended to stand for parliament in 1952 for the Ortodoxo Party but the coup
d'Žtat of General Fulgencio Batista overthrew the government of Carlos Prio
Socarras and canceled the election. Castro charged Batista with violating
the constitution in court but his petition was refused. In response Castro
organized a disastrous armed attack on the Moncada Barracks in Oriente
province on July 26, 1953. Over eighty of the attackers were killed, and
Castro was taken prisoner, tried, and sentenced to fifteen years in prison.
(Castro used the closing arguments in the case to deliver "History Will
Absolve Me", a passionate speech defending his actions and explaining his
political views.) He was released in a general amnesty in May 1955 and went
into exile in Mexico and the United States.

He returned to Cuba with a number of other exiles as the 26th of July
Revolutionary Movement. The group's first action was in Oriente province on
December 2, 1956. Only twelve of the original eighty men survived to retreat
into the Sierra Maestra Mountains and from there wage a guerrilla war
against the Batista government. The survivors included Che Guevara, Raul
Castro, and Camilo Cienfuegos. Castro's movement gained popular support and
grew to over 800 men. On May 24, 1958, Batista launched seventeen battalions
against Castro in Operaci—n Veran. Despite being outnumbered, Castro's
forces scored a series of stunning victories, aided by massive desertion and
surrenders from Batista's army. On New Year's Day 1959 Batista fled the
country, and Castro's forces took Havana.

Foreign policy

Initially the United States was quick to recognize the new government.
Castro became prime minister in February, but friction with the United
States soon developed when the new government began expropriating property
owned by big American companies (United Fruit in particular), proposing
compensation based on property tax valuations that for many years the same
companies had managed to keep artificially low. Castro visited the White
House shortly after coming to power, and met with Vice President Richard
Nixon. Castro's economic policies had caused some concerns in Washington
that Castro was a Communist with an allegiance to the Soviet Union.
Following the meeting Nixon remarked that Castro was "naive" but not
necessarily a Communist.

In February 1960, Cuba signed an agreement to buy oil from the USSR. When
the U.S. owned refineries in Cuba refused to process the oil they were
expropriated, and the United States broke diplomatic relations with the
Castro government soon after. To the fears of the Eisenhower Administration,
Cuba continued to establish closer ties with the Soviet Union. A variety of
pacts were signed between Castro and Soviet Premier Khrushchev, and Cuba
began to recive large amounts of economic aid and military arms from the
USSR. In early 1961 Castro formally declared himself to be a Communist, and
announced that Cuba would become a Communist state, moddled after the Soviet
Union. The Communist Party became Cuba's only legal political institution,
and the nation's goverance was centered in a Politburo, led by Castro.

The United States then sponsored an unsuccessful attack on Cuba. On April
17, 1961, a force of about 1,400 Cuban exiles, financed and trained by the
CIA, landed in the south at the Bay of Pigs. The CIA's assumption was that
the invasion would spark a popular rising against Castro. There was no
rising, and what part of the invasion force made it ashore was captured
while President Kennedy withdrew support at the last minute. Nine were
executed in connection with this action.

Pope John XXIII excommunicated Castro on January 3, 1962. This was
consistent with a 1949 decree by Pope Pius XII forbidding catholics from
supporting communist governments. For Castro, who had previously renounced
catholicism, this was an event of very little consequence, nor was it
expected to be. It was aimed at undermining support for Castro among
Catholics; however, there is little evidence that it did.

In October, 1962, the Cuban missile crisis occurred after the United States
discovered the Soviet Union was actively attempting to assemble nuclear
missles in Cuba. After the tensions were defused, relations between the
United States and Cuba remained mutually hostile, and the CIA continued to
sponsor a number of assassination schemes over the following years.

In 1976, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, then Prime Minister of Canada, made one of
the first state visits to Cuba by a Western leader during the height of the
American blockade and personally embraced the Cuban leader. Trudeau gave him
a $4 million gift, and arranged a loan for another $10 million. In a speech
delivered by Trudeau, he said "Long live Prime Minister and
Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro. Long live Cuban-Canadian friendship."

Economic policy

Castro consolidated control of the nation by further nationalizing industry,
confiscating property owned by non-Cubans, collectivizing agriculture, and
enacting policies to benefit workers. Many Cubans fled the country, some to
Miami, Florida, where they established a large, active anti-Castro
community. Because of the harsh embargo imposed by the United States, Cuba
became increasingly dependent on Soviet subsidies to finance improvements in
Cuba's economic conditions. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990 brought
real economic hardship to Cuba.

The harsh American-led economic sanctions, which include a general travel
ban to Cuba for tourists, have been a major reason for Cuba's economic
troubles. However, between 1960 and 1990 much of their effects were
neutralized by aid from the former Soviet Union that in some years was as
high as one quarter of the island's Gross Domestic product. In spite of the
embargo Cuba continues to trade with other nations. Nonetheless, Cuba is the
second most popular tourist destination in the Caribbean (behind the
Dominican Republic). Its economy also receives an large amounts of currency
(estimated at $ 850 million annually) from Cuban Americans who send money
back to their relatives or friends.

Education and health care

Education and health care were made available to all, even those living in
the remotest corners of the island. UNESCO statistics confirm that Cuba's
rate of basic literacy is now among the highest in Latin America.

Few Cuban children live on the streets - unlike in many neighbouring
countries. Infant mortality rates are the lowest in the region (and slightly
lower that those in the United States), health care is excellent and all
receive free milk until the age of six. Besides entertainment, Cuban
television broadcasts college-level courses for the adult population.

The Cuban media often highlight the contrast between contented Cuban
children and their counterparts in Bogotˆ, Los Angeles or Buenos Aires -
dealing in drugs, dragged into prostitution or living in shanty towns.

Castro's leadership of Cuba has remained largely unchallenged, his
supporters claim this because the masses -- whose living conditions they
believe he improved -- rallied behind him. Castro's opponents believe his
continued leadership is due to coercion and repression.

Supporters of Fidel Castro's regime point to Cuba's relatively advanced
healthcare as a success of his government since it came to power in 1959.
Much of the post-revolutionary rebuilding of the country focused on
children. Cuban life expectancy as of 2002 is only slightly lower than the
USA's.

Critics of Castro's regime allege that although Cuba's infant mortality rate
is now the lowest in Latin America that was also was the case before Castro
-- when, they claim, it was also the 13th lowest in the world.

It is generally acknowledged that Cuba has made substantial progress in
developing pharmaceuticals. Cuba has its own portfolio of related patents
and tries to market its medicine around the world.

Literacy campaign

Cuba also has improved the literacy of its people. Castro's literacy
campaign focused on rural areas where literacy was very low. In a fall 1960
speech before the United Nations, Castro had announced that "Cuba will be
the first country of America that, after a few months, will be able to say
it does not have one illiterate person." Nearly 270,000 teachers and
students were sent across the country to teach those who wanted to learn how
to read and write. By 1961, Cuba's illiteracy rate had been reduced from 20
percent to 4 percent. People who completed the course were asked to send a
letter to Fidel Castro as a test. Cuba's National Literacy Museum archives
more than 700,000 such letters.

Popular Image

The apparent cult of personality around Castro's person has arisen despite
his personal attempts to discourage it. In contrast to many of the world's
modern strongmen, Castro has only twice been personally featured on a Cuban
stamp. In 1974 he appeared on a stamp to commemorate the visit of Leonid
Brezhnev, and in 1999 he appeared on a stamp commemorating the 40th
anniversary of the Revolution. There has been a much stronger tendency to
encourage reverence for Cuban independence hero Jose Marti and the "martyrs"
of the Cuban revolution such as Che Guevara. Castro himself is famous for
his long and detailed speeches which often last several hours and contain
lots of data and historical references. He rarely appears in public without
his military fatigues, and trademark cap.

Human rights

Critics also point to Cuba's human rights record and to the many opponents
of Castro's regime in prison. Castro himself claims that the United States
continue to engage in secret warfare against Cuba using spies and
mercenaries, and that many so-called human rights activists are in fact
agents of the United States. Critics also point to censorship, the lack of
press freedom in Cuba, the lack of civil rights, and the inability for a
vote to result in a leader other than Castro. Castro's supporters feel that
this is justfied to prevent the United States from installing a foreign
leader that suits their interests by means of propaganda and funding for
opposition groups. They contend that Cuba's human rights record is
significantly better than that of many other countries in the
Caribbean/Latin America region, that the Batista regime which Castro
replaced was a brutal dictatorship nevertheless supported by the US, and
that Cuba faces a very real and proven threat from the United States.